Bruins do what Yankees can't

UCLA LOYALTY: Former Orange Lutheran pitcher Gerrit Cole turned down big money for three years with the Bruins. KEVIN SULLIVAN/The Orange County Register

Wayne Gretzky once said — more than once, actually — that 100 percent of the shots you don't take don't go in.

The longest shot in college sports is the recruiting — and retaining — of a great high school baseball player, considering the bonus money that piles up on Graduation Day.

UCLA coach John Savage takes his cuts anyway. And, back in mid-August, he redeemed a lottery ticket named Gerrit Cole.

He got a commitment from the Orange Lutheran right-hander and watched it hold up, even though the New York Yankees took Cole with the 28th pick in the first round of the baseball draft.

Cole failed to sign with the Yankees at the Aug. 15 deadline. Now he pitches for the Bruins for at least three years.

And the Yankees were bringing millions to the table while Savage could only promise the lure of playing in front of dozens, at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

Now that'srecruiting.

"Just a couple of years ago we were only concerned with whether Gerrit would make the varsity," said Mark Cole, Gerrit's father. "Then all of a sudden the scouts were coming and people were talking about him going in the first round. It's been an amazing experience."

Amazed? Think of Yankees scouting director Damon Oppenheimer and just about everybody else involved in the underpinnings of baseball, where bluffs are often made but hardly ever hold up.

Cole is the first high school pitcher who was drafted in the first round, but not signed, since Jeremy Sowers and the Cincinnati Reds couldn't come to terms in 2001. Cincinnati used the 20th pick in the draft on Sowers, who went to Vanderbilt. Three years later, Cleveland took him with the sixth pick, and Sowers got a $2.4 million bonus.

No one knows whether the Coles were just as savvy, because we don't know what the market will resemble in 2011, the next draft for which Cole will be eligible. Or if Cole will be as desirable or healthy.

But the rumors were that Cole wanted $7 million, a suspicion enriched by the fact that Scott Boras was advising the Cole family.

Boras' shadow is why Cole's name dropped to the Yankees. Boras doesn't recognize the practice of "slotting," which is the bonus that Major League Baseball recommends for each pick.

Last year, Rick Porcello, a high school right-hander from New Jersey, was taken 27th by the Tigers and enjoyed a $3.58 million bonus, highest among the high school pitchers in the first round. He is a Boras guy.

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